New Innovative Marine Nuvo 20 Build

[Shane B.]

Good morning all. Wanted to post my progress so far on my first reef aquarium. I've kept numerous planted tanks in the past. This has always been my dream, and as we are limited in space I am keeping a small AIO in my home office. I just want some softies and LPS corals in here with a few fish and cool inverts. Nothing major, just something with good movement and pretty colors.

Tank established on 08-22-2019

Current set up:

• Nuvo Fusion 20 AIO
• APS Stand
• Nuvoskim desktop skimmer
  • Already had to have this replaced under warranty. Not best pleased.
• Cobalt 100W heater
• 2 filter socks
  • Cleaned these 1 time, don't see me doing this every week so I have 2 media baskets on the way. Plan on running filter floss, carbon, and bio balls on each side.
• Kessil AW360 with Spectral Controller
  • This isn't running yet, but I do already have it programmed.
• Tunze Nano ATO
• Aqua Clear 70 HOB with fuge hack running chaeto
  • Small LED light currently running at night stuck to filter
• IceCap 1k Gyre running at about 30'ish %
  • Few different modes programmed right now, though it doesn't really matter.
• 2 Sicce Micra 158 GPH pumps
• Used Agra-Alive Special Grade Live sand, BiraSpira, and MB7 for seeding.
• Around 15 lbs of CarribSea dry reef rock
• About half a box of bio balls spread in the fuge, return area, and media baskets.

Planning on sticking with the BRS/WWC Hybrid method for cycling. Going to be a LONG wait before I add my CUC and then go fallow for 75 days as a precaution. Then fish after a 30 day QT.
Stocking plans: No idea as of yet, hopefully things that are hardy.
Current parameters: 78 degrees, 1.025 ppt, everything else - no idea as I'm doing my best to wait the 2 months before I start checking. If I start now I'll tell myself I'm ready for livestock before I actually am.
Lessons learned: Already mentioned the socks, skimmers can overflow and spill onto your power strips, killing them (happened to my Kessil power supply), raw shrimp stink so the wife said I have to phantom feed instead, patience is a virtue.

Black stuff in pic 2 is carbon i spilled and haven't been able to vacuum just yet.

 

[flchamp89]

Looks great. Welcome to the Nuvo gang.

 

[PR_nano]

Looking forward to the progress, getting a Nuvo myself.

 

[Shane B.]

Nothing to report today - so far my time on the tank is spent phantom feeding, adding my MB7, keeping an eye on my ATO, and wishing I had something alive I could look at. I REALLY want to test my parameters to see how far along my cycle is but I know once I start I will get in a hurry and add something too soon.

 

[Shane B.]

So a few questions for those still following:

I did my first parameter test today. I wasn't going to test this soon, but my Red Sea kit came today and i wanted to give it a try. Seems easy enough, just takes longer to let things "settle" than I'm used to.

Anyway, my tests show my ammonia, nitrite, and nitrate are all 0???? I'm only 2 weeks into being set up as of this morning. I was expecting either ammonia or nitrate. Each showing 0 has me confused.

I've turned my light to "acclimation mode", since I haven't been running it for the past 2 weeks. I'm also going to stop dosing MB7 for now.

Should I not be running my chaeto to allow some nitrate to build up, so i can have my "ugly" phase? The chaeto already turning brown, due to the 0 nitrates.
Should I just keep phantom feeding and wait for things to catch up and see what happens in 2 more weeks?
Add another shrimp for ammonia and get yelled at by my wife and kids?
Add my CUC and go fallow for 76 days? (i highly doubt this is the case so soon)

The last thing I want to do is add something too soon and have it die because I was wrong. I'm just confused because what i expected to happen is not happening.

 

[Shane B.]

Params after 3 weeks:

Temp: 79°
SG: 1.024
PH: 8.2
KH: 10.1
PO4: .028 ppm
NH3/NH4: 0
NO2: 0
NO3: 35

Notes: Pretty sure I messed up my Mg/CA tests, so I will add those params next week. I added some copepods from Algae Barn on Wednesday. Feeding OceanMagik daily. My chaeto is mostly dissolved (assuming I added it too early and there are not enough nutrients in the water), scrapped my first bit of diatoms off the glass Friday, small group of CUC coming in Wednesday. Have all QT materials, but waiting to set that up until the first part of November.

 

[Tihsho]

Nice progress so far. What made you want to go with a HOB refugium rather than a DIY algae reactor? Only reason I ask is due to salt spray.

 

[DeepSeaReefer7]

I'm currently cycling my tank as well started yesterday but i used Dr Tims one and only for a quick cycle,
but from what ive read no cheato until its fully cycled.
maybe the phantom feedings aren't producing enough ammonia to get the cycle started?
also are you running a UV or protein skimmer during the cycle? that will kill off alot of the bacteria before it has a chance to grow.
I'm unfamiliar with the Brs/wwc way of cycling so i cant comment on that exactly.

sorry i couldnt be more help i just recently gotten back into reefing after taking 3 years off.

 

[Shane B.]

Nice progress so far. What made you want to go with a HOB refugium rather than a DIY algae reactor? Only reason I ask is due to salt spray.

HOB fuge = simple. I don't mind the salt spray as much, and i don't want to worry about any DIY projects I build suddenly coming apart in the middle of the night.

 

[Tihsho]

Ah, ok. Have you seen the DIY reactors though? It's nothing that can simply fall apart as you're using an off the shelf reactor and just have it lighted with an LED strip. To each their own though, figured it might save your some space in the rear compartment.

 

[Shane B.]

Ah, ok. Have you seen the DIY reactors though? It's nothing that can simply fall apart as you're using an off the shelf reactor and just have it lighted with an LED strip. To each their own though, figured it might save your some space in the rear compartment.

I will definitely take a look. Right now I'm a little cramped, but I make it work. If the HOB doesn't keep the chaeto going after i put in my livestock i'll circle back.

 

[Tihsho]

I doubt you will have any issues growing cheato in the AC as long as it's getting light and the nutrients it needs. Regardless of how you do it, cheato in a system is a solid nutrient sponge!

 

[cCRAWLINS]

One thing about the cycle I would change is using something like Dr Tim's ammonium chloride instead of just using food. A lot more precise, knowing for certain you have enough ammonia to start a cycle

 

[Lorenzo Angotti]

Hi, looks like you doing the right things, Diatoms is a good sign that your tank is cycling, keep testing for ammonia and nitrite on weekly bases if they still read 0, don’t worry, you should find when properly cycled, your Nitrates raise a little, cycling can take 2 to 4 weeks maybe more! depending if you’ve used live rock, live sand and beneficial bacteria to speed things up! Once cycled your nitrites and ammonia should both be 0, clean your filters/socks tank glass and do your small water changes, let your new water get polished by your filters, after a couple of days you can start adding your CUC, get them settled in before you adding your first fish now, but can’t stress enough! Let them settle in before buying any more, too many fish at once could spike your ammonia and it is so easy in this game to rush and that’s when your water parameters become unbalanced and can get a system crash! Good luck

 

[Shane B.]

Params after 4 weeks:

Temp: 79°
SG: 1.022 (going to increase this with water changes over the next few days)
PH: 8.2
KH: 10.2
Ca: 175
Mg: 1280
PO4: .000 ppm (checked with Hanna ULR checker)
NH3/NH4: 0
NO2: 0
NO3: 50 (again, tackling with water changes)

Notes: Added my CUC and a Cleaner Shrimp. Everyone seems happy so far. I also took the advice of others here and went from the HOB fuge to an algae reactor using a BRS reactor and some LED strip lights on a 4 hour timer. My tank is MUCH more quiet. Currently not sure it my chaeto has enough to "eat" with my PO4 at 0.

Any additional advice on getting my nitrates low aside from water changes? Running Red Sea Reef Mature with NO-PO -X and some ChaetoGro. That is really the only thing i'm doing "daily" as I only have a smattering of snails and 1 shrimp. Still haven't set up my QT, might be a project for this weekend.